Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill
# Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Women's downhill

The Women's Downhill competition of the Nagano 1998 Olympics was held at Happo-One at Hakuba on Monday, February 16. The race was delayed two days due to rain and fog.

The defending world champion was Hilary Lindh of the United States, while Austria's Renate Goetschl was the defending World Cup downhill champion.

Katja Seizinger successfully defended her Olympic title, Pernilla Wiberg took the silver, and Florence Masnada was the bronze medalist. Through 2019, Seizinger remains the only ski racer in history to repeat as an Olympic downhill gold medalist.

The Olympic Course II started at an elevation of 1,590 m (5,217 ft) above sea level with a vertical drop of 691 m (2,267 ft) and a length of 2.518 km (1.56 mi). Seizinger's winning time was 88.89 seconds, yielding an average course speed of 101.978 km/h (63.4 mph), with an average vertical descent rate of 7.774 m/s (25.5 ft/s).

## Results

The race was started at 10:30 local time, (UTC +9). At the starting gate, the skies were clear, the temperature was −5.3 °C (22 °F), and the snow condition was hard; the temperature at the finish was 2.5 °C (36 °F).

| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Difference |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 5 | Katja Seizinger | Germany | 1:28.89 | — |
| | 15 | Pernilla Wiberg | Sweden | 1:29.18 | +0.29 |
| | 2 | Florence Masnada | France | 1:29.37 | +0.48 |
| 4 | 4 | Mélanie Suchet | France | 1:29.48 | +0.59 |
| 5 | 27 | Svetlana Gladysheva | Russia | 1:29.50 | +0.61 |
| 6 | 8 | Picabo Street | United States | 1:29.54 | +0.65 |
| 7 | 12 | Régine Cavagnoud | France | 1:29.72 | +0.83 |
| 8 | 1 | Alexandra Meissnitzer | Austria | 1:29.84 | +0.95 |
| 9 | 7 | Hilde Gerg | Germany | 1:29.96 | +1.07 |
| 9 | 11 | Katrin Gutensohn | Germany | 1:29.96 | +1.07 |
| 11 | 29 | Ingeborg Helen Marken | Norway | 1:30.19 | +1.30 |
| 12 | 3 | Heidi Zurbriggen | Switzerland | 1:30.25 | +1.36 |
| 13 | 14 | Varvara Zelenskaya | Russia | 1:30.38 | +1.49 |
| 14 | 10 | Carole Montillet-Carles | France | 1:30.65 | +1.76 |
| 15 | 13 | Steffi Schuster | Austria | 1:30.73 | +1.84 |
| 16 | 25 | Trude Gimle | Norway | 1:30.87 | +1.98 |
| 17 | 35 | Jonna Mendes | United States | 1:30.89 | +2.00 |
| 18 | 22 | Michaela Dorfmeister | Austria | 1:31.17 | +2.28 |
| 19 | 17 | Kate Pace-Lindsay | Canada | 1:31.30 | +2.41 |
| 20 | 21 | Bibiana Perez | Italy | 1:31.43 | +2.54 |
| 21 | 24 | Alessandra Merlin | Italy | 1:31.44 | +2.55 |
| 22 | 23 | Mélanie Turgeon | Canada | 1:31.45 | +2.56 |
| 22 | 30 | Catherine Borghi | Switzerland | 1:31.45 | +2.56 |
| 24 | 20 | Špela Bračun | Slovenia | 1:31.54 | +2.65 |
| 25 | 33 | Janica Kostelić | Croatia | 1:31.97 | +3.08 |
| 26 | 26 | Katie Monahan | United States | 1:32.22 | +3.33 |
| 26 | 34 | Morena Gallizio | Italy | 1:32.22 | +3.33 |
| 28 | 31 | Kirsten Clark | United States | 1:32.25 | +3.36 |
| 29 | 32 | Yekaterina Nesterenko | Russia | 1:32.54 | +3.65 |
| 30 | 18 | Corinne Rey-Bellet | Switzerland | 1:32.92 | +4.03 |
| 31 | 36 | Lucie Hrstková | Czech Republic | 1:33.00 | +4.11 |
| 32 | 28 | Anna Larionova | Russia | 1:34.36 | +5.47 |
| 33 | 39 | Yuliya Kharkivska | Ukraine | 1:35.60 | +6.71 |
| 34 | 37 | Carola Calello | Argentina | 1:36.71 | +7.82 |
| - | 6 | Renate Götschl | Austria | DNF | - |
| - | 9 | Isolde Kostner | Italy | DNF | - |
| - | 16 | Regina Häusl | Germany | DNF | - |
| - | 19 | Kristine Kristiansen | Norway | DNF | - |
| - | 38 | Mónika Kovács | Hungary | DQ | - |

    Source:
